One friend can save a life
by TheFrozenQueenOfSnowAndIce
Summary: After Nabu is in a uncertain condition for over a year, Layla is not doing very well and relapsing in some old habits from her pre-Alfea time. Her friends haven't noticed it for a long time because they are pretty busy with their own lives and boyfriends. When Stella reads a book called 'One friend can save a life' some bells start to ring.
1. Chapter 1

Bloom:

I was reading a literature book, something I hadn't done in a long time. When I thought I was still normal and living on earth I used to read a lot of books just for fun. Stella tried to read a book too and she was succeeding pretty well for her being. She had been reading it for almost one and a half hour, but that seemed to be her limit. She threw it next to her, closed.

'Pff, I thought it would be a happy story about friends.'

'What are you reading then?' Flora asked.

Stella picked the book up again and read the title out loud. 'One friend can save a life. It sounded a little dramatic and I thought the story would be about happy friends.'

'And it's not?'

'No, it's about a young woman who loses someone close. She gets depressed and isolated from her friends because they don't seem to notice. God it's so dark, it makes me feel sad by only reading it. It wouldn't surprise me if the story ends with a suicide. I don't want to read about this stuff anymore and I really don't want to read about someone killing him or herself.'

My thoughts raced through my mind, Stella told us about the story in her book, but she didn't seem to realize she described a situation that was very close to us and we didn't realize our own situation, exactly like the story in the book. I walked to Stella and took the book from her. I read the back side.

After I had finished reading it I looked at Flora who seemed to have the same thoughts as I just had. She was thinking about Layla too. The story was about a young woman who had lost her fiancé and got sad of course. She tried to pretend she was fine because she didn't want people to pity her and her friends believed her show. But after some time the people around her didn't see her so much anymore and slowly the woman gets more and more isolated and depressed until she couldn't go on anymore.

'Stella, have you even read the back side?'

'No, but now I know I should have, cause now I will have to read another whole book.'

'But you haven't recognized anything in this story?'

'Like what?'

'Maybe like the similarities between the woman in the book and Layla?'

She could have hit herself for not having seen it all the time. 'Oh my God, do you really think Layla is like that too? Do you think Layla would ever think about… Suicide and stuff..? No, she wouldn't.' After Flora and I didn't respond immediately she added: 'Would she?'

I didn't dare to say it out loud. I felt so much guilt towards Layla. I hadn't seen her in days, though I knew she was in the school somewhere. I just hadn't realized it. And Flora too. 'Flora, have you spoken to Layla lately?' I asked.

She shook her head. 'No, last time was more than a week ago. Helia and I asked her if she wanted to join us to Magix, but she said she had other things to do.'

'Huh, like what? She never joins us anymore to anywhere,' Stella said.

'I think Layla is suffering a lot more than we could have imagined,' I said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes: I'm happy people like to read my story, so here's chapter two. Not a lot new information, but I think this is essential for some coming chapters. In the end, I want this to have a happy ending with Nabu alive and Layla having accepted her past and live happy enough to enjoy her life again. Feel free to review/comment, I would like to know how to improve the whole thing. Thanks for reading!**

Musa:

I was invited to perform in a very popular bar in Magix tonight, after I got the invitation I happily said yes. When I told Layla about it, she said she was happy for me and proposed to do my hair for my performance.

So here we were, in my room. Just Layla and I. It had been a few days I last spoke with her, but as always she hadn't forgotten and showed up in time. She told me to sit down on the comfortable chair in front of my big mirror. I was a little stressed for my performance, sure I had sung for many more people than I would tonight, but still I was stressed.

'Just relax, you're a great singer and you know that,' Layla said.

'Yes I know, I don't know why I feel this way about tonight. I have the feeling something is going to happen that I'm not prepared of.'

'Well you never know, hopefully it's something nice. But for now I want you to turn around your chair so that you can't look in the mirror anymore.' Layla sort of smiled. It was a smile to give me confidence, not a smile of happiness. It was a long time ago I'd seen her happy. I can't even say for sure when was the last time. I turned around my chair and not seeing myself every single second did make it easier to relax, but it also meant I couldn't see my friend. Though I had promised not to ask anymore about her weight problems I tried every time to find out if she was doing better or worse than the moment before, but that was likely impossible since she used magical illusions to make sure nobody could see what she really looked like. And that made me worry.

'Riven will come to see you, right? Any other VIP's this time?'

I wasn't exactly sure if she was really interested or if she was just trying to keep the conversation going.

'My father comes. He is off for a few days and when I told him about tonight he said he would come. I think it's good for him to not be working this few days, he sounds so tired every time I call him…'

Layla quickly brushed my hair and separated some locks from the rest of my hair. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but it felt professional and tight.

'You don't like my father much, do you?' I asked.

'Musa, I don't know him like you do. I only know him as the man who planned on taking away one of my best friends. My opinion is quite subjective.'

'What is your father like? You don't talk much about your parents.'

Layla remained silent for a moment while she gave my hair her final touches. 'I don't want to talk about it.'

'Anything you do want to talk about?' I asked nicely. I really hoped she would open up about some things. 'You know I'll always listen, right?'

'Yes, I do,' she answered distantly while she checked her creation from front view. 'Alright, you can look in the mirror now.'

I turned around again to admire her quick and simply but precisely done work. She had made two water fall braids, one left, one right, that came together on the back of my head.

'Wow, Layla, it's so beautiful! Thanks!'

'No big deal, your hair is easy to do anything with. I think you can do the make-up yourself.'

'Wait, don't leave! You just got here.' I looked at her in the mirror, she looked sad. 'Hey, what's up? Did I say something wrong?'

'No, you didn't. I just uhm…' Layla sounded uncomfortable, that was weird, because she never did. She was always quite sure about her words. 'I'm going to leave you. I'm going to leave the group, Alfea, everything here.'

'What? W.. When were you planning on telling me this? On telling us?!' I didn't want to sound angry but her message had overwhelmed me.

'I'm telling you now,' she said, still calm. 'I'm sorry for ruining your night, please don't think too much about this during your performance.'

'No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that.' I walked over to her and gave her a hug. 'I don't want you leave,' I whispered.

I got the feeling she only hugged be back to comfort me, not to feel better from it herself. 'I have to make three more exams, I'm gone in five days.' I let out a sob. 'Don't cry, you can't show up with red eyes tonight. Besides, you can't change my decision. It's not worth your tears.'

I tried to keep my breathing under control. 'May I ask why? I won't tell the others if you don't want me to.'

We let go of each other. Layla looked away from me, hesitating. Or maybe looking for the right words. 'I can't stay here forever. In max two years my parents will hand over the throne to me, I've made some promises that I'll do anything for to keep. Nabu… Well, still no progress, but I have been working on a cure and I'm very close to a solution.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes: Thanks for reading so far, here's chapter three. It's still pretty slow, I hope I'll be able to speed the next chapter up a little, but I'm not sure if I'll do that in chapter 4 of 5. You'll find out when they're finished. Enjoy!**

Riven:

Musa's performance in Magix last Saturday was terrific as always. Her voice perfectly singing the words that created her songs, though I could see she wasn't 100% focusing on the show. She had told me just before what was on her mind. I think it was a good thing she did, otherwise she could have never done her show the way she eventually did. People who didn't know about it, wouldn't have noticed something was wrong.

Ho-Boe, Musa's father, was standing next to me in the crowd. Through the several years I now knew him I must say he earned my sympathy. After the show I took both father and daughter to a nice restaurant for a late dinner. Later that evening Musa asked me if I could try to talk to Layla. Not to try and talk her out of her leaving plans, it was far too late for that, but to try and figure out what was all behind her actions since the group kind of lost grip on her. She really hoped that I was able to make her drop her magical illusions, but I had to tell her that would be very unlikely. In some way Musa was right to think of me being successful of having a conversation with her, I mean in some ways I am a bit like Layla. We're both stubborn as hell, which is probably a pretty good reason why we haven't been really getting along with each other for quite some time in the beginning, but the more important link between us is Nabu. After I got to know him a bit more than just Layla's boyfriend, which he wasn't actually by that time, but you know what I mean, he became my best friend.

After what happened on Tir Nan Og little more than a year ago I found myself mentally troubled again. Thing was, I wasn't alone. Musa was there for me and she kept me positive in the end. If it hadn't been for her, I really can't tell you where I would be standing right now. But Layla was alone. Though her friends kept repeating she could tell them anything blah blah blah I knew from Nabu she wasn't that kind of a person. Nabu was for her who Musa is to me, everything. He kept her out of the dark, her own dark sometimes. But it was the other way around too, Nabu really needed her too, she was his everything too. He had been dealing with difficulties in the past that only Layla seemed to understand the way he needed understanding.

So I decided I would try, not only for Musa, but also for my best friend and of course for Layla. I had been thinking all yesterday and today what the hell I was going to say to her, only to conclude I was going to improvise. I didn't know which room was hers but I got a text from Musa that she had seen Layla entering the gym halls of the school. A long time ago, when the Trix had destroyed too much of Red Fountain to stay there any longer, all Specialists had to stay at Alfea for a while. From that time I remembered how to get to Alfea's gym halls.

When I got close enough I heard the loud training music and the sound of boxing bags being punched. When I had vision too of the situation I was also close enough to feel the magic she used to make it look like nothing was wrong with her. She wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts, her magic did the rest for her. I didn't recognize the music but the loud beats were very useful for a good workout. I walked closer to her and the alignment she had created. A supply closet was left with its doors wide open. I saw the punching badges and got an idea.

Layla interrupted her training when I walked through her area of vision. She muted the music to a volume you can actually talk without screaming to one another. Her eyes followed me while she was catching up on breath until I stood right in front of her with two punching badges on my hands.

'Why are you here?' she asked me objective, no emotion more clear than another.

'I think you know why, come on, jab jab cross.'

I held up the badges. Though she didn't have a real answer on her question she gladly took the opportunity to train with a interactive opponent.

'So how's life on Red Fountain?' _jab jab cross_. 'Any new projects?' _jab jab cross_.

Her technique was perfect which made it possible for her to hit the badges very effectively.

'We're working on an improved version of our aircraft. How are your exams going?'

_Jab jab cross. Jab. Jab jab cross._ 'They're hard, but that's' _jab jab cross_ 'what the advanced program is for.'

'Do you think you're going to get you're graduation?'

'I'm sure, only question is which rates will be on my diploma.' _Jab jab cross_.

'How did your friends react? Musa was pretty upset Saturday.'

_Jab jab cross_. 'I haven't told them yet.' _Jab jab cross_.

Her crosses became more energetic.

'Alright, let's make it a _jab cross low kick. _I'll switch badges to indicate left or right, okay?'

Layla nodded. She did the combinations a few times in silence, but took a step back after and let her defense down.

'You OK?' I asked, badges still ready.

She put up her defense and did the combination again, but this time her technique and strength were partly gone. She did one more before turning around. She tried to take a step, but fainted and tripped.

I dropped the badges on the floor and silenced the heavy music. Now that her mind wasn't able to control the magical illusion anymore I saw how terribly skinny she had become. No wonder she fainted. She was lying on her right side, her under arms crossed in front of her. The inside of her bottom arm was covered in a few scars.

_So things are really going that bad,_ I thought. There were three scars, one had to be about a few days old, not yet healed enough to form a scar. The other two had to be older than a month or so, at least enough time had passed to make them a lot less visible than the first one, but they were certainly not gone.

I wasn't sure if I should be texting Musa to come, but Layla slowly regained consciousness. As soon as she saw the phone in my hand she asked me not to do it. In a glimpse the illusion was back and she looked perfectly fine as before, only her eyes betrayed her now.

'Sorry, I'm fine. I just…'

'Need to eat something if you ask me.'

She sighed as she tried to sit up.

'You are right. I'm sorry you had to see that.'

Next, she wanted to stand up. I decided she could use a hand, which she gladly took use of. Her eyes were unfocused which meant she was probably still dizzy.

'Come on, lean on me if you need to. You guide us to the kitchen,' I said as I took her hoodie from the floor and gave it to her.

'You can call Musa if you want to. She's welcome to join,' Layla said as we walked not too fast, the halls of the school unpopulated because it was over 10 P.M.. With my free hand I sent Musa a text message. She didn't reply but she was already there when Layla and I arrived, some pans on the stove with a delicious smell in the air. The two girls hugged while Musa looked at me and smiled, a _Thank You _in silence. I smiled back at her, _You're Welcome_.

Several minutes later we had three plates on the kitchen table, some vegetables mixed with a small piece of meat and some potatoes. Musa and I had already eaten earlier that night, but took a plate anyway to make it easier for Layla. She tried to eat normal the best she could, but she was clearly fighting against the war of thoughts in her head.

'Maybe you can tell us some more about that cure you've been working on,' I suggested.


	4. Chapter 4

Nabu:

The last year has been... well, let's just say it's impossible to describe it in one word. Though I had no control of my almost lifeless body, my mind was awake, I was even able to feel what the nerves on my skin perceived, but most importantly I was able to hear. On the one hand, that was terrible. I heard what all of my visitors were saying during their time in my room. It was so frustrating to hear their grief over me and not be able to even say something back. There was no sign I could give them that I could hear them. But there was one person who knew. Layla.

In the beginning she was just sad, but she knew why I was still alive and she was determined to give me back my life. She said she had some ideas, but she couldn't find anything about it. So she had to develop a 'cure' herself and test it until she had prove it would be safe.

Time passed and my absence became more obvious in her appearance. She slowly fell back into old habits. Difference was that she was open about it this time, at least to me. She had told me about the progress of both her cure and how she was doing. I was sure she told everything she could tell me about her cure that was based on her mutated blood cells (a few of her bloods cells had blended with mine. Layla's blood cells got mutated by radiation and while that's usually a bad thing, it made her stronger). Her theory was that the few mutated blood cells I had in my body were keeping me alive. Because I had such little amount of them, it's wasn't strong enough to let me walk around and be myself. She was scared that a blood transfusion meant an overkill of mutated blood cells which would only lead me to death. She hadn't shared any information about it with anyone else, scared that people wouldn't understand. And she didn't want to give my parents false hope in case things turned out disappointing. But while that was all going well, she was not. She had dealt with depression and anorexia sort of problems in the past.

She had told me some of it, I was sure there was a lot more to tell, but faith had decided she wasn't allowed to have conversation with me. But the fact that she had told me the things she had meant so much to me, and by everything she told me that strengthened, because every story made me see more how hard it was for her to break her fear of trusting others.

The most important lesson I learnt of what she told me, was that she couldn't love herself. That was partly caused by her parents, the way they raised her, and partly because of many events.

_'It's okay if you can't love yourself. I'll teach you, and I'll give you so much love you won't miss your part,' _I told her over a year ago. Now I wish I had chosen my words just a little bit differently.

The lack of love she had around her waned because she was less and less in contact with people. She even admitted she tried to avoid people sometimes, because she felt like she didn't deserve their time, let alone their love. It was very hard to hear her say that, but the worst was when she said she felt like she didn't even deserve my love anymore. She felt more and more like failure, her self-destructive thoughts became more and more active and she fell deeper and deeper in her own mental black hole.

If I could just open my eyes and tell her she was wrong… If I could just stand up and embrace her, give her active love… But it wasn't that simple.

She came yesterday.

'It's all done now,'she said. 'I passed all the exams. I will hear the results in a week or so, but I'm almost 100% sure my parents will approve them. I only have to pack the last few things and clean up my room. I leave Alfea tomorrow. It doesn't really feel like leaving, I feel pretty much like I have already left it a long time ago, you know.

But more important, your cure is finished. The last test proved it to be save. I have prepared it already for a direct shot. Your parents will visit Alfea's lab tonight, so I can explain them how it works and all. I will give it to them, I want them to decide about it. Well, actually I want you to decide, but.. yeah, you know what I mean.

I want you to know that, when someone will administer your cure, you will feel the changes. I have written instructions where I recommend some morphine, so you won't feel any pain.'

There was no emotion in her voice, which made her sound sad. She told me she was not going to visit me for a week, there were political problems on Andros she had to fix before they got out of hand. She gave me a little kiss on my forehead and whispered 'I love you' before she left.

I was pretty sure my parents would believe Layla once they knew how the cure worked and why it would work. I hoped I would soon be able to open my eyes and get my life back, then I could also give my family and friends their life back too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes: Sorry this one took me so damn long! I had like four or five versions for this chapter, but in the end I think is the best one. I'll do the best I can to update soon.**

Flora:

Our lessons ended early today. Faragonda gave us permission to stop earlier to give us some time to say goodbye to Layla. We only figured out she was leaving the night before, Musa could no longer say nothing about it. I was still not sure if I understood Layla's decision, but I was sure she had her reasons to leave. I just hoped she was going to share them with us.

Musa and I went to Layla's room right after class and knocked on her door.

'Come in.'

Layla's room wasn't very big. Stella and she were the only ones who didn't share a room with anyone, but Layla's room was a lot smaller than Stella's room. Layla had never complained about it, never even mentioned it.

'Oh hay, they let you go early today. Everything alright?'

'Well no, one of best friends is leaving, so we're not alright.'

Layla's face showed a feeling of guilt. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'But you know there is nothing you could have done to change it and there is nothing you can do or say to make me change my mind now.' She looked at us and saw our doubting faces. We all knew we had let her down lately. 'But I won't disappear, you can still call me whenever you want or sent me messages. I promise I'll answer them.'

I smiled. 'And we swear you will get messages from us.'

'Will you have dinner with us for this last evening? I know it will be just another school meal, but we would all like you to join us for this temporary last time,' Musa proposed.

'Sorry girls, but I was planning on not being here anymore by that time. Though I'll be surprised if it will actually happen.' We didn't know what she meant by that, but decided to not ask an explanation.

Layla had already put everything in her camouflage green army bag. She must have send some of her stuff back earlier or she really didn't have brought a lot of property to Alfea when she came here. Only half an hour after Musa and I had joined her she had finished cleaning it all up and closed the room that now looked like she had never lived there. She had to bring the key to Miss Faragonda's office and sign out there. We came with her.

After that the others joined us. We all took place around a table in Alfea's big hall. We talked about some highlights that happened during our time as a group. It seemed there was still not one of us who had the guts to ask Layla anything directly, which was actually a bit disappointing.

After some time, the hall got filled with more students and dinner got magically served.

'They seriously forgot me again,' Layla said a little annoyed. She dialed a number on her cell and took the distance of a few steps during her short conversation.

'Called a taxi?' Tecna asked.

'No, my ex-driver or whatever you're supposed to call someone like that. My parents were supposed to pick me up, or at least one of them. But as usual they seem to have other things to do. Well, it doesn't really matter, I'm kind of used to it and Garvan knows. Though he doesn't officially work for us anymore, at least he is always there for me to pick me up,' Layla said.

'Why don't you call Roy?' Stella asked with a tone in her voice that indicated her curiousity. Stella and Layla had had a fight about this just before summer, Stella kept saying Layla and Roy were a couple. The two of them still had disagreements, but Layla had never explained the real situation before.

'Roy is not.. like that to me, Stella. In fact he works for my parents. Indirectly. I've cooperated with him during some... missions, so he has been my partner for a couple of times, but that's it. Besides, I'm still engaged and my fiance is still alive.'

It was only then that the small elegant ring on Layla's hand stood out. Stella wanted to say something like an apology or something, but she didn't get the chance. Layla's phone trembled which took her attention. Layla quickly read the message she just got, then stood up.

'I've got to go now, sorry,' she said while she reached out for her bag. We had no idea what exactly was all happening at that moment, but as she said it three police vehicles landed on Alfea's ground. All students stared at the situation, everybody was silent.

'Shit.' Layla dropped her bag and ran. She left the school on the back side and escaped into the woods. So whatever she had just read on her phone had to be connected to the police appearing in front of the school.


End file.
